Report on Salmon Fisheries. 
XIX 
' coast, and the rivers Tyne, Esk, Almond, and Leven, which fall 
' into the sea outside and beyond the estuary, cannot be considered 
' as tributaries of the Forth, and as such subject to the jurisdiction 
' and control of the Forth District Board. 
' Had the term ''River'' in the Bye-law been ''Rivers^' the case 
* would have been different, and the Tyne, Esk, Almond, and Leveri 
' would have been included. As it is, looking to the precedent of 
' the Tay and the Eden, it humbly seems to me that they are 
* excluded. 
' If this opinion be correct, it does not appear to be beyond the 
' powers of the Fishery Board for Scotland, who, by the " Fishery 
' " Board (Scotland) Act, 1882," are declared to " have the powers 
' " and duties of Commissioners under the Salmon Fishery Acts," 
' to constitute the Almond, Midlothian Esk, and Tyne into a 
* separate Fishery District, with the consent of the proprietors 
' and the Secretary for Scotland. 
' That this would be a great advantage to these rivers there can be 
' but little doubt, when we consider how greatly the fishings in the 
' Esk have been improved during the last four years by the efforts 
* of " The Esk (Midlothian) Angling Improvement Association," 
' who have leased the lower part of the river, placed a watcher on 
' it, and put ladders on some of the dams. Up to the date of this 
' Report, the members of that Association have captured this 
' season with the rod nearly 500 sea-trout, besides a large number 
' of yellow trout. 
' I am directed to state, in the last place, whether there are any 
' other Fishery Districts in Scotland in the same position as those 
' of the Forth and the Tay. In answer to this, I have the honour 
' to report that I have gone over the various bye-laws constituting 
' Districts and Estuaries, and I find one considerable river with 
' a District Board in a similar position, namely, the River Awe. 
' On the West Coast, however, there are some comparatively 
' small streams in a similar position, such as the Inchard on the 
west coast of Sutherland, the Glenelg, which falls into the Sound 
' of Sleat, the Kilchoan or Inverie, Loch Nevis, and the Carradale, 
' Mull of Cantyre.' * 
With reference to the above, the Inspector states that the con- 
clusion at which he has arrived, after a careful study of the statute 
law relating to the subject, is that wherever there are rivers fre- 
quented by salmon outside the estuary line of the main river which 
gives its name to the district, and where, in the bye-law constituting 
the district, the word ' River ' is used in the singular instead of 
' Rivers ' in the plural, the said rivers do not belong to the district 
or fall within the jurisdiction of the District Board. He cites, as 
an example that will be familiar to some members of the Fishery 
Board, the River Lunau, which falls into Lunan Bay within the 
* There is an Act (13 & 14 Vict. cap. 21, 10th June 1850), cntituled 'An Act for 
* shortening? the language used in Acts of Parliament,' the 4th section of which })ro- 
vides — ' That in all Acts words inipoi ting the masculine gender shall be deemed and 
' taken to include females, and the singular to include the plural, and the p.lural the 
' singular, unless the contrary as to gender or number is expressly provided,' It ig 
thought, however, that the above j)rovision would not apply to bye-laws. 
